Jiwell City (Cheongju) seafood bar, ₩29,900 yukjeon course: Sinbakkase

These days when I hear "omakase" I get a little tense about the price haha — but this place lets you enjoy a fusion omakase course, from seasonal seafood to aged sashimi to meat dishes, for just ₩29,900 per person, so I had to check it out. It's perfect for someone like me who wants to eat this AND that, and I left totally satisfied! If you've been looking for a good restaurant in Cheongju's Jiwell City or a seafood bar in Bokdae-dong, take a look :)

Where is Sinbakkase, and where do you park?

🚩 2F, 100 Jinjae-ro, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do. Sinbakkase sits right on the main street of the Jiwell City restaurant alley in Bokdae-dong, Cheongju.

Since it's on a main-street building, it wasn't hard to find, and it's pretty convenient if you're making dinner plans around Jiwell City. There are lots of restaurants and bars nearby, so it's a good spot to grab a meal and a drink together. Parking is available behind the building, but the space isn't very generous, so I'd suggest arriving with some extra time during peak hours.

Hours are Monday–Thursday 17:00–23:00, Friday–Saturday 17:00–24:00, closed every Sunday!

Inside Sinbakkase: the mood and the dachi counter seats

Opening the door, the inside was bigger than I'd expected. It's all wood-tone interior with warm lighting, so it keeps a Japanese-restaurant feel without being too heavy or formal.

Besides the regular tables, there's also dachi (counter) seating, which looked great for chatting quietly over food if you're visiting as a pair haha.

The table seats also looked generous enough for a bigger group. It's less the quiet, composed mood of a formal omakase, and more the vibe of "ooh, what's next?" as each dish arrives and you tip back a glass lol. So it suits everything from a date in Bokdae-dong to drinks with friends to a work dinner or group gathering.

Menu and price: ₩29,900 per person

As the name suggests, the main event at Sinbakkase is the omakase — ₩29,900 per person. These days ordering a few plates of sashimi or seafood plus drinks at most bars adds up fast. But here the price is fixed from the start and dishes just arrive one after another in sequence, so there's no need to agonize over the menu wondering "what should I order?" lol

What I liked especially is that it's not just seafood dish after seafood dish — the mix of seasonal seafood, aged sashimi, beef and chicken dishes meant I never got tired of any one thing.

※ They noted that since it's omakase, the course lineup can change depending on the season and what ingredients come in that day.

The Sinbakkase omakase course, dish by dish

And finally, the ₩29,900 per-person Sinbakkase omakase properly began! Instead of loading the whole table at once, dishes arrived one by one, which turned out to be more fun than I expected.

Abalone gut soup and katsuo goma salad

It started off gently with abalone gut soup. Warm and mild, with the savory richness of abalone innards — it kind of stops you from just diving straight into soju on an empty stomach lol. Since the first dish wasn't heavy or intense, it made me look forward to what was coming next.

Next came the katsuo goma salad, where the freshness of cucumber and tomato combined with a savory sauce and bonito flakes really woke up my appetite.

I didn't expect much from "just a salad" at first, but the combination was better than expected — I kept going back for more!

Monkfish jiri stew simmered at the table

Next up, something drinkers will be glad to see: monkfish jiri stew. This one simmers away right at your table, and the broth gets cleaner and more refreshing the longer it cooks.

With the clean flavors from radish, bean sprouts and minari (Korean watercress) plus the monkfish, the broth was seriously good. I hadn't even properly started drinking yet and already felt like I was curing a hangover lol.

Being able to scoop up hot broth throughout the meal paired really well with the other seafood dishes too.

Seasonal seafood dishes and aged sashimi

The seasonal seafood dish that followed was great too. It uses whatever's in season at the time — shrimp, shellfish, abalone — and it was clearly fresh from the first bite!!

The shrimp was plump and sweet, the shellfish had a nice chew, and the abalone was crunchy yet tender rather than tough — every texture was different, which made it fun to pick through haha.

And then the seasonal aged sashimi I'd been waiting for! You can just dip it in soy sauce, but it's also fun to spoon some vinegared rice onto a piece of sashimi with a dab of wasabi and make your own little self-sushi bite!!

Beef striploin yukjeon and stir-fried chicken neck

After a long run of seafood, here's the change of pace! The beef striploin yukjeon (pan-fried beef) came out hot, savory and tender with a slightly crisp edge — personally one of the most memorable dishes of the whole course.

I'd assumed a seafood omakase would be mostly sashimi, so having warm yukjeon show up midway made the course feel a lot more varied.

The final meat dish, stir-fried chicken thigh, is definitely punchier than everything before it! With chewy, springy chicken thigh, spicy seasoning and a smoky char, by this point it had fully shifted from "meal" mode into "drinking food" mode lol.

It wrapped up with a refreshing dessert drink to cleanse the palate! No single dish was huge, but with so many courses arriving one after another, I ended up satisfyingly full. Most of all, the biggest appeal of Sinbakkase was that for ₩29,900 you're not just getting sashimi — you get warm soup, seafood, aged sashimi, and meat, all in one course.

Is the ₩29,900 course at Sinbakkase worth it?

Having eaten there myself, Sinbakkase felt less like a formal, high-end omakase and more like a good-value fusion omakase you enjoy casually over drinks. Dishes arrive one at a time so you still get that omakase sense of anticipation, but the atmosphere is far more relaxed — a great place for drinks with friends!

Given the ₩29,900 per-person price, being able to try everything from seafood to meat was the biggest strength. These days ordering just two or three drinking snacks in Bokdae-dong adds up to about this much anyway, so getting seasonal seafood, aged sashimi, soup, and meat all in one course felt like solid value.

I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a date spot in Cheongju's Jiwell City, anyone looking for a work-dinner or gathering spot in Bokdae-dong, and especially to anyone who loves seafood with a glass of soju!

Do you need a reservation at Sinbakkase?

Sinbakkase says they source fresh ingredients daily and age them just long enough to serve at their best. Because of that, ingredients apparently sell out fast on many days, and showing up without a reservation might mean you can't get a meal at all...! They prioritize reserved guests and adjust the quantity of ingredients and food to match the reserved headcount, so even for a same-day visit, I'd recommend calling ahead to reserve!